[MUD-Dev2] Importance of emoting (Was: A rantagainstVanguardreviews and rants)

[John Buehler]

Michael Hartman writes:

> John Buehler wrote:
> > In typed chat, players really don't care to expend the effort needed
> > to compose full sentences with correctly spelled words, punctuation
> > and such.  It's far more work than just saying what they have to say
> > in real life.  They're used to the effortlessness of voice, and
> > aren't all that given to working hard at it in a game.  This is
> > partly reflected in constructs such as "r u going?"
>
> I actually feel bad for you that these are the types of people you game
> with. Everyone I game with refers to people who type like that
> as...well, I'll be nice and not list some of the games.

You're playing with them too.  They're in every game that I've ever
played. The single letter word stuff is an extreme, used for the
purposes of illustration.  There is a spectrum of effort that people are
willing to put into chat.  Some more, some less.  I apply the same
effort to this mailing list that I do to chat.  Other people either lack
the skill of using the keyboard or of using the English language, or
they lack the willingness to apply themselves to the task.  I see no
great shocker in claiming that composing full sentences with proper
punctuation requires more skill and effort than a spoken conversation.

I'll use a classic example.  When somebody achieves something in-game,
people invariably say "gratz".  I say "Congratulations".  I was once
asked by a kid in my group why I didn't say what everyone else was
saying.  I observed that I was, only that I was saying the whole word. 
He replied "Oh yeah".

I know of no one who says "gratz" in the real world.  Though I have
actually heard people in voice chat say "see-see" instead of "crowd
control", which floored me.  We need to get rid of text chat - and fast.
 We're going to end up further corrupting the language as a result of
typed shortcuts.

> I think you grossly underestimate the percentage of players who eschew
> painful looking shortcuts like "r u going." I am pretty much a power
> gamer when I play graphical MMOs, and I still couldn't bring myself to
> type in such idiot-speak.

Perhaps you're overestimating the percentage of players that I'm
claiming use such shortcuts.  Also, I make no claims of correlation
between power gamers and lack of skill in the written word.  I would
tend to lean in the direction of power gamers having greater skill
because of the intense concentration that power gamers tend to exhibit. 
It takes concentration to pick up on typos and to get all the
punctuation just so.  Similarly, it takes concentration to keep track of
the trivia of efficiently climbing a game's ladder.  Me, I'm lazy when
it comes to the gaming part.  I just tag along, chatting all the while.

JB